Saturday, December 19, 2009

Free Style Max Vo2

So far so good. Beside a ton of life stress this week my back held together well; I can sleep and bend and work pretty much stiffness and pain free. Yet it's always in the back of my head now to be very careful as I'm really not sure what made it 'go out' last time. Nor 'go in'.
I just know I have to be as tension free as possible( muscularly and mentally) so I can stay as square,plumb and neutral as possible. Yeah, this is gonna be fun,lol.Stretching out, very regularly remains a big part of my training and my day. No problem.And that does not count yoga,either,lol.

Today is Max Vo2 day down at Girya and I knew Tracy and Meg were gonna go hard at it and I didnt want to be pulled into that before I knew at all how my back would handle any real volume.SO I let them do their "down" week( which meant 80 sets of EIGHT, but with just the 12 kg) and I did what I call freestyle Max vo2 training.

Back in the Day, The Blond Bomber hisself, Dave Draper used to train like this( still might as far as I know- Laree?) going on instinct ( not to mention years of real deal experience) to pick exercises, weights, reps AND rest periods.His eye was on the goal of the workout, not necessarily any particular grouping of those variables. He knew what he needed his body to feel at the end of the workout in order to accomplish his physique goal of continued progress.
Robby Robinson used to train like that too, talking about the gym being his 'playground'.

I have way too much OCD to train like that usually but in these circumstances( injury, fear, etc) it seems like a good idea.
I know I wanted to get back into max training; I know i wanted to do 7's and maybe 8's but I also knew that I didnt want to get into real cardio fatigue AS I was trying to move my total body as fast as possible just 2 weeks after tweaking.

SO I did it free style.I started with 7's and rested as long as I wanted to. It was probably no more than 30 seconds per set but I didnt want to look.Having Tracy and Meg blasting away just a few feet from me was plenty of inspiration not to rest too long. But not getting hurt was paramount.

I am also changing my groove a bit too, going back to the wrestling shoe and a slightly wider stance.This can also throw things off.

Since I am a slow 'warmer- upper' even when I'm un injured I knew I was speed up as I warmed up and got a groove going, as well as convincing myself I wasn't doing any harm. SO the rest periods got shorter each set even when I went from 7's to 8's after 25 sets.

It's really so nice NOT to be locked to the damn gym boss; to be able to wipe the sweat, get some chalk, take a drink.especially as much as I sweat. that's usually a big distraction anyway.Wet kettlebells really tear up the hands much faster and make it really hard to do the reps right.Too much grip stress also threatens my shoulder health. Ah ain't old age and injury lovely?

heres the deal

Freestyle Max Vo2
12kg x7/7x4

16 kg x7x25 sets
16 kg x8 x 15 sets

40 total sets
295 reps
10,620 lbs

Not bad numbers at all, looking at it.I am very pleased with this. It's more than a start, and it will keep Rob OBrien from catching me towards my 50 K snatch goal,lol.

One arm swings
20kg x10/10 x5 sets

wow,I have really lost ground here.It's SO much different than snatches I actually forgot! THis is the key movement and I can't wait to build back up to the 32 kb swings again. MY PR is 400 reps in one workout with the 32 kg one arm swing and 600 with the 24 kg. Great goals. I do need another day to work JUST swings though. In time.

Clubbell Arm Casts
10 lbs x 15/15
15lb x12/12
20 lbs x8/8 x 3sets

Clubbell Sheild Cast
10 lbs x20/20
15 lbs x 15/15

these were great too. I am going to stay away from swipes again for awhile ,not sure how the close stance stuff is on my sacrum. adding in the one arm swings is priority anyway and I just do the clubs to keep my arms big, lol.

Alright thats it for now, the next test is yoga in an hour and a half. Real easy, just a stretch :0)

Datsit

10 comments:

Rob O'Brien said...

Haha. I might fo for 1000 reps tomorrow to close the gap. I am glad I am pushing you.

Mark Reifkind said...

damn you man,lol! I just lost a week and there you are. go for it dude.I wish I could pump up the volume but I'm lucky I did what i did today.

Rob O'Brien said...

Nice job today! Keep it up. I can see the finish line and am just ready to blast past it.

Sandy Sommer, RKC said...

I love how smart you train. I've been selected to participate as a Marty Gallagher guinea pig for a project he and Pavel are working on. It consists of only smart work. The days I work on my own will be swings, get ups, swings, snatches and more swings!

Tracy Reifkind said...

Sweets....watching you train today (within my peripheral vision) I woud never have guessed you missed a step.....strong as ever.....

Mark Reifkind said...

sandy

thank you for the kind words, it means a lot. Good stuff with the Gallagher/Pavel project, you couldnt be in better hands!
as for my training I guess in some ways I'm just a product of my environment: always training for some kind of progress around some injury,lol.
It's hard to drop back and start over but after you get to where you can't train at all you can really appreciate being able to do anything!

Mark Reifkind said...

Hon,

thanks love, and knowing you were going to be there getting it done pullled me through!you are SO strong it's crazy. your easy day is my goal! as always you continue to inspire and motivate me.

Mason McClellan LAc said...

Found this link off of Tim Ferris's posts. Didn't read the whole thing but may have some perspective.

http://stevemagness.blogspot.com/2009/12/fallacy-of-vo2max-and-vo2max.html

Mark Reifkind said...

mason

I will leave the intense scientific deabate for Kenneth but I will say that nothing I've ever done has increased my CV fitness and overall work capacity for myself as well as my clients as much as max vo2 training with the snatch.
ANd Tracy's cardio ability speaks for itself.
one thing about science, it continually and consistently contradicts itself with every new study that comes out.
I don't do the training exactly as written anyway. I like to take some science and wrap it up with intuition and hopefully come out with some Art that is useful.
thanks for the comment, the link and for stopping by. we'll see what Kenneth has to say about the study.

Laree Draper said...

Rif, Dave definitely still trains like this, and due to physical issues, perhaps even moreso because when he gets to the gym, a lot of the time he can tell right away his original plan isn't going to fly. So, yes, he's been doing this for a least 40 years.

But we also have to recognize his goals were and are different from many readers. The freestyle instinctive training doesn't work so well for a snatch test, for a PR weight or other goals that require a more structure. In Dave's world, there are no singles, no PRs... it's different.

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 Well this went great. not perfect but the basic premise worked and I'm happy. I was not optimistic at all about this at all given recen...